Microsoft explored buying Sega, Bungie and IO Interactive

Microsoft has explored the possibility of acquiring Sega, Bungie and IO Interactive in recent years.

In November 2020, Xbox boss Phil Spencer emailed Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and the company’s CFO Amy Hood, requesting approval to approach Sega Sammy with a view to acquiring its gaming studios.

“We believe that Sega has built a well-balanced portfolio of games across segments with global geographic appeal, and will help us accelerate Xbox Game Pass both on and off-console,” he wrote of the Japanese company in an email seen by The Verge.

Spencer added: “Sega is the most attractive next acquisition target due to its global PC catalog, presence on mobile in Asia, and global brand affinity on console through its classic IP.”

The message was included in internal documents from Microsoft’s ongoing court case against the US Federal Trade Commission, which is seeking to block the Xbox maker’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

While it’s unclear how Nadella responded to Spencer’s request, Sega was also listed on an “M&A final watchlist” document from April 2021.

Bungie, which was later acquired by PlayStation maker Sony, and Zynga, which would go on to merge with Rockstar owner Take-Two in the games industry’s biggest ever completed deal, also appeared on the watchlist.

So too did Hitman maker IO Interactive, Hades developer Supergiant Games, and Pokémon Go studio Niantic. Also under consideration were Thunderful, Playrix and Scopely.

Should Microsoft close the Activision Blizzard acquisition, the deal would dwarf the $12.7 billion Take-Two paid to acquire FarmVille maker Zynga.

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Spencer said last week that Microsoft spent a lot of time in discussions with Zynga before moving on to other targets.

“In the end for our opportunity, we thought we needed to have something that was even bigger than Zynga was given our very small starting space in the mobile business,” he said.